Dynamics of Cytokines Concentration in the Blood Plasma of Patients after Multipotent Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Administration for Graft Versus Host Disease Prevention

Introduction Despite the large number of clinical studies on the use of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) for the treatment and prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), the mechanism of their action in the organism is not well understood. The known data refer either to clinical effects or obtained in vitro. Due to the immunomodulatory effect of MSCs in the body, subpopulations of T cells and the concentration of cytokines involved in the immune response can change. The role of T cells and certain cytokines (TNF alpha, IL6, IL8, etc.) in the pathophysiology of GVHD is described. The aim of this investigation was to study the composition of T cells subpopulations and the concentration of cytokines in the peripheral blood of patients who received MSCs for GVHD prophylaxis. Methods The study included 21 patients who received hematopoietic stem cells donor's derived MSCs for the prevention of GVHD as part of the ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01941394 trial. The control group included 16 patients who did not receive MSCs. After signing informed consent, blood samples were taken from all patients during routine examinations on the day of restoration of the number of leukocytes to 1000 in μl (day 0), after 3 and after 30 days. MSCs were injected on day 0. None of the patients developed GVHD during this time. To analyze plasma cytokines and chemokines, the Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine Panel kit, 27-Plex (BioRad) was used, to determine the concentrations of IL-1β, IL-1ra, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL- 6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-9, IL-10, IL-12 (p70), IL-13, IL-15, IL-17, bFGF, Eotaxin, G-CSF, GM-CSF, IFN-γ, IP-10, MCP-1 (MCAF), MIP-1α, MIP-1β, PDGF-bb, RANTES, TNF-α, VEGF according to manufacturer's recommendations. Forward and side scattering parameters determined the peripheral blood lymphocytes population and then CD4+ or CD8+ lymphocytes were gated. For each of this population the composition of memory cells subset were determined by flow cytometry. Results Significant differences were found between the 2 groups only on day 30 in the concentration of IL8 (17.0±3.2 pg/ml in the control group versus 32.8±4.1 pg/ml in the MSC group, p